Plummer's signing bonus was $7 million, and his base salaries in 2003-2004 are $530,000 and $660,000. Then the Broncos face a $6 million decision on Plummer in March 2005, when he's due that amount in the form of an option bonus. If things haven't worked out for the two sides, Denver can walk away from him after paying slightly more than $4 million per year for two years. That's a reasonable sum to find out if Plummer still has the stuff of star material.

Plummer's contract is very similar to the one that Jeff George signed when he arrived in Oakland in 1997. That was reported as a five-year, $27 million deal, but in reality it was worth $7 million in the first two years ($5 million to sign, $2 million in total base salaries), before a void/buyback clause had to be activated by the third year. The Raiders wound up releasing George after the 1998 season, a fate the Broncos hope they don't have to repeat.

But given Boston's recent off-field problems, how can Chargers head coach Marty Schottenheimer say with a straight face that he "absolutely" doesn't think Boston's character is an issue, and he has "no concerns?"

Here's how I read those statements by Schottenheimer: "We really, really, really need a big-time receiver and I'm hoping that if I say everything believably enough, Boston's problems will never come back to make us all look like idiots."

All I know is that Boston's agent, Mitch Frankel, was aware enough of his client's issues that he had him and another former receiving client, Cris Carter, hang out together in South Florida recently in the hope that Carter could counsel Boston about the maturity level he needs to succeed in the NFL.

In a lot of ways, it's remarkable that the Cardinals were willing to give up on a talent like Boston, who is only 24 and had a dominant season as recently as 2001. I still don't understand the reasoning behind not franchising him, if only to consider potential trades and get something in return for him.

But the Cardinals and the Ravens both had enough concerns about Boston off the field that they weren't willing to pay him $12 million in the first two years of a long-term contract, as the Chargers' deal includes. It's one thing to take the risk that San Diego took, given that the potential payoff is so great. But it's stick-your-head-in-the-sand silly to pretend the risk doesn't exist.

Why? Here's what I know about the qualities that Redskins head coach Steve Spurrier appreciates in a quarterback: Spurrier has never really gone in much for the highly athletic, mobile-type quarterback. He wants a guy who sets up back in the pocket, makes the right reads and executes his offense with a minimum of mistakes. He doesn't like improvisers, or guys who are prone to miscues while trying to make something happen.

Uh, I just described Johnson's game to a tee, did I not?

Maybe Johnson was the best available veteran backup, but that doesn't mean he's a good fit for Spurrier's offense. If you were drawing it up, you couldn't convince me that there was a worse fit.

Better break out the new box of visors at FedEx Field. If the Redskins need to rely on Johnson for any length of time next season -- and they're almost sure to with Ramsey still green and growing -- Spurrier's patience is going to be tested as maybe never before.

Speaking of the Browns, Cleveland head coach Butch Davis is playing it coy with his quarterback situation, and nobody ever said you have to name a starter in March. But know this: If they took a poll within the Cleveland organization, coaching staff included, backup Kelly Holcomb would beat out incumbent Tim Couch on the question of who should start. In a landslide.

That said, Davis can't publicly give up on Couch yet, and he knows it. But Cleveland's quarterback question is one story that ain't going away.

That possibility was news to Gilliam and the Vikings, but that doesn't mean that the league's committee on diversity hiring and the Cyrus Mehri group might not be in favor of seeing the Lions' front office make an addition along those lines, thereby blunting some of the criticism that came Detroit's way.

Anderson, the former Jets fullback, played for Parcells in New York. But according to sources, the saga is a little more complicated than Parcells leaning on his New York ties to corral a player that both he and the Patriots coveted. Stay tuned.

Both contracts were backloaded salary-cap era creations that are designed to do one thing: lower both players' 2003 cap values in order to free up room for the team to make necessary personnel maneuvers. Nothing in Rice's deal is real except that he'll earn about $2.2 million this year, and then Oakland will have to decide if it wants to pay him a $400,000 roster bonus next March and keep him in 2004.

As far as Brown, suffice to say the final three years of his deal are worth $24 million of dummy money -- or $8 million per year. By comparison, he's only being paid $2.7 million this season.

Everybody knew that the AFC champions had to do some drastic restructuring to get under this year's $75 million salary cap limit, and they did it. But Oakland is courting a future salary-cap crisis by backloading so many big deals, choosing to deal with the cap consequences at a later date.

Don Banks covers pro football for SI.com.